Carpet Cleaning Water Damage

This article explains how to clean, save and restore the water damaged carpet.

Prepare the Carpet for Cleaning

Using a thin screwdriver or an awl, pick up a corner of the carpet. If you have a tack trip, be very very careful! It's quite easy to prick yourself on the sharp and often rusty nails.

If You Don't Have a Tack Strip:
The water damaged carpet is glued down. This means that you don't have padding.

If You DO Have a Tack Strip:
Tack strips usually mean you have padding. Any padding that's affected needs to be yanked out.

Padding:

Padding will always have to be entirely trashed. Don't even think of saving it - it will get moldy.

Treatment & Cleaning of the Carpet:

Using either a pump-up sprayer or a household sprayer, spray the back of the carpet. Once again, I highly recommend using a pump up sprayer with a large tank, or at least two to three coats of both your deodorizer and disinfectant. If you are using a hand held trigger sprayer or aerosol, make sure to put down 2-3 coats! This will unsure the backside of your carpet cleaning water damage is done for good.

For the top of the carpet, you must clean it with both deodorizer and sanitizer. A carpet cleaning machine from your hardware store will do the trick. Move furniture and other items around so that you successfully clean every square inch of the carpet. Don't cheat around ANY furniture! Since you have already extracted your carpet with a wet/dry vacuum and cleaned it, the carpet should no longer be very wet. If it still is, you must extract and/or clean it further.

That concludes the carpet cleaning water damage associated with your water damage issue.

Water Damage Repair

After water strikes, your first step is to identify the type of water that is affecting your residence.

There are two different types of water damage. The "least" harmful is called clean water, which comes from such sources as a sump pump failure, foundation crack, appliance leak, etc. It is relatively safe if it has not been sitting untreated for more than 72 - 94 hours. If your water damage has been sitting untreated for over this time, dangerous bacteria have grown and the water should be treated as dirty water.

The second, more harmful type of water is called dirty water. This water comes from an overflowed toilet, failed ejector pump, broken sewage line, etc. This is hazardous water and must be treated with extreme caution. Still solid fecal matter may still be present, along with clumps of decomposing bath tissue. All affected materials ought to be discarded and the affected walls, baseboards, carpet, and pad need to be treated appropriately.

Remember: all damage is dangerous - and you don't have time to fool around. You need to complete water damage repair ASAP!

Water Damage Clean-Up

Water Damage Clean Up and Restoration

Dealing with water damage can be a traumatic experience. You feel a loss of control in your own home! The feeling only gets worse if you have a company come in and rip apart your walls, carpet, furniture, and rummage through your personal items! After dealing with all this aggravation and more, you get "rewarded" with a bill for $1,000's!

This does not have to be your experience with water damage.

You already have the ability to clean up your own water damage, you just need the know-how! Below is a step-by-step skeleton of what the actions you should take in remediating your own water damage.

Turn Off All Electricity- Turn your power main to the off position so you don't get electrically shocked. Never step in standing water without the power off!

Identify the Type of Water- You must determine if your water is considered "clean" or "dirty." Clean water comes from sources such as a failed sump pump or leaky dishwasher. Dirty water comes from sources like broken ejector pumps and cracked sewage lines.

Equipment and Materials- You will need water damage equipment such as a wet/dry vacuum, carpet cleaning machine, deodorizers, disinfectants, and body protection such as puncture proof gloves.

Remove the Water- Use either a submersible pump or wet/dry vacuum to remove the excess water.

Treat Your Carpet and/or Other Flooring- You must properly clean, disinfect, and deodorize the carpet.

Discard the Padding- Remove and trash all the padding under the carpet.

Treat Walls and Baseboards- Remove the baseboards and create air cavities in the walls. Properly disinfect and store the baseboards.

Ensure Your Furniture is Safe- Check for structural damage and if water affected absorbent areas.

Drying Equipment- You will need to use air movers, fans, and dehumidifiers after you finish the demolition and restoration process. These pieces of equipment will allow your home to dry properly.

Deal with Insurance Companies- After you remediate your water damage, you will have to deal with your insurance company and make sure the insurance company pays you the money you deserve!

Waiting even several hours to treat your water damage properly will lead to extensive mold growth and irreversible damage! For an in-depth step-by-step guide to everything mentioned above and more, visit click here.

Water Damage Restoration

Have you been affected by water damage? Chances are yes - more than half of the residences in the United States have indeed been affected by some form of water damage in the last year.

Chances are you're also reading this because you are no exception to that 70% or so. As so, I'm here to help. I'm a seasoned water damage veteran who has seen just about every type of damage you can come across, and even better (for you) is that I'm here to spread my knowledge.

First thing you need to do is act fast. Mold and mildew can begin to grow within the first 2 days, and that mold can then develop into black mold in just a week or so.

The process for residential water damage restoration goes something like this:

1. Remove any safety hazards such as extension cords lying in the water.

2. Extract as much water as you can with a wet/dry vac and mop.

3. Pull up and trash the water damaged padding.

4. Either clean and sanitize or toss the carpet.

5. Remove, sanitize, and lie flat the baseboards.

6. Disinfect the walls. (No matter what type of walling.)

7. Disinfect and deodorize the sub-flooring.

8. Rent water damage equipment to inhibit mold growth and odor.

9. Read these two fantastic articles that goes a little bit deeper into water damage restoration and how to repair water damage.

Who Else Wants to Know How to Repair Water Damage?

Knowing how to repair water damage quickly can be quite the task. Should you miss even one part of the process or fail to do a step correctly, you can be looking at thousands of dollars in mold damage, not to mention the dangers of living in the residence around that incubation.

Mold originally starts out behind baseboards and looks like it is a little green fuzzy texture. It then quickly continue to grow into a thick, black mold which is much more dangerous than its previous counterpart.

It is this that we are trying to avoid, which is why the process to repair water damage is so crucial. Even professional services sometimes fail to complete the entire process without fault, so untrained homeowners must be very conscious in their efforts!